Billions of dollars in small federal contracts could be opened to small businesses if the Small Business Administration (SBA) prevails in a dispute with the General Services Administration (GSA). According to a report on Associated Content, the SBA has ruled that, under the Small Business Act, the GSA needs to set aside contracts valued between $3,000 and $100,000 for small businesses.A copy of the decision can be found at http://www.fitnet.net/FPA/Press/SBA%20Opinion.pdf.Not surprisingly, the GSA disagrees.According to a report from the Washington Bureau of Bizjournal.com, the GSA contends that if all orders under $100,000 have to be set aside for small businesses, medium-sized businesses and large businesses effectively would be eliminated from the program. “Not only would this reduce competition and increase costs to agencies, it would also negatively impact those small businesses who are part of large business subcontracting plans or who participate in teaming arrangements with large and medium-size businesses,” GSA wrote in response to SBA’s opinion.The founder of the Fairness in Procurement Alliance, small business advocate Raul Espinoza, disagrees.He thinks all exemptions from small set-aside requirements should be eliminated from federal contracting. “The exemptions are directly responsible for having excluded, illegally, $640 billion in federal contracts over the last decade from small and minority businesses,” he said.
That’s great news for small business owners like us!